The purpose of the
Florida
Memorial for the Unborn is to help those who have experienced the loss of an
unborn child due to abortion or miscarriage. Many times meaningful closure can be
reached by giving the child a name, finding a place and way to memorialize him or her
and allowing yourself to grieve your loss. The Florida Memorial for the Unborn provides
a serene place to memorialize your child, grieve and pray.

Welcome
to the Diocese of Venice Respect Life website. We hope you will find helpful information
here. It is a work in progress that will be updated from time to time...

There are a number of pro-life organizations
doing wonderful work from many different approaches, but our role is to do the work that our
Bishop, the United States Bishops and the Holy Father have given us to do.

Respect Life Ministry is dedicated to transforming today’s culture of death into a
culture of life.Pope John Paul II’s encyclical,The Gospel of Life
provides hope and inspiration in the promotion of respect for all life, from fertilization to
natural death.The American Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities: A Campaign in Support of
Life provides a framework for the ministry, following the Catholic tradition of prayer,
study/education and action, including pastoral care and legislative advocacy.Respect Life Ministry focuses on life and death issues involving the beginning of life, end of life,
the death penalty, and legislative action on the parish, diocesan, state and national levels.

Persons with Disabilities Ministry
seeks greater inclusion of persons with physical, sensory, cognitive and emotional
disabilities in the life of the parish. The primary focus of the older Catholics
Ministry is helping the frail elderly and their caregivers. Natural Family Planning
Ministry is an effective method of child spacing in keeping with Church Teaching.

KEY CHURCH TEACHINGS

"We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and
life, the "culture of death" and the "culture of life." We find ourselves not only "faced
with" but necessarily "in the midst of" this conflict: we are all involved and we all
share in it, with the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life."
(#28) ... "It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the
right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from
which they develop." (#101)

Pope John Paul II - The Gospel of Life

"Restoring respect for human life in our society is an essential task of the
Church that extends through all its institutions, agencies, and organizations and embraces
diverse tasks and goals...Actively promoting a renewed respect for human life is the
responsibility of every Catholic."

United States Bishops' Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities:

A Campaign in Support
of Life

"The failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders
suspect any claims to the "rightness" of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and
least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as the "temple of
the Holy Spirit" -- the living house of God -- then these latter issues fall logically into
place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. ... All direct attacks on innocent human life,
such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house's foundation. These directly and
immediately violate the human person's most fundamental right -- the right to life.
Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand."

Pope John Paul presents the Church's teaching on the sanctity and inviolability
of innocent human life, from conception to natural death, with special reference
to abortion, euthanasia, and other assaults against life in its most vulnerable
stages and conditions. 1995.

Study
Guide to Evangelium Vitae

By Russell Shaw. This Study Guide
to Evangelium Vitae, has been prepared by the Knights of Columbus for groups and
individuals who wish to become more familiar with Catholic teaching on the
respect due human life. It is available online and as a printed booklet through the Catholic
Information Service.

Quotes from The Gospel of Life

A collection of Quotes
from The Gospel of Life has been compiled. These notable quotations are helpful for use
in developing teaching aids, bulletin briefs, etc., and present key elements and teachings
of the Encyclical.

In response to Pope John Paul II's call for "a general mobilization of
consciences and a united ethical effort to create a great campaign in support of
life" (The Gospel of Life, no. 95), the U.S. bishops call upon all
the resources of the Church – its people, services and institutions – to
work together to build a culture of life. The Pastoral Plan describes
comprehensive model for pursuing this goal. 2001.

This document, written for the use of diocesan Respect Life
Directors, outlines strategies (goals, objectives and proposed action) for the
coming decade.The importance of
this planning is intensified by a sense that the coming years will be especially
challenging for the Church, particularly in her role as promoter and defender of
human life and human dignity. 2000.